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Released from the ground
Sick spattered walls washed and the guilty
Sent away

Country boys living in jet seats
Uniforms and injuries
Rhythm pushes the drone through new landscapes

Somewhere a troll charges toll
How we earn a whole new world
Subscribe,ransom, set up the pashas tent
Pick a muddy field, a closet, a men’s room
All these jobs posing as something else
Games are anything but
Jobs are anything but

Creating something with unseen goals
Employed to do one thing, making art on the side
Historians in stage blacks, selling memories and memorabilia
Our experience becomes the R&D for others
And the weaning process for our own future

Out the window, in the distance
The dancing lights of the lampago de catatumbo
Far off in time and space
Another planet, another heart
A soft silent sigh of shared song
The toxic fumes of man, of earth, of woman

Fly over state of your own history
Toll paid, troll fed, what to make, what to make
25 years is time for many buildings, children grown
Cars junked, canals cleaned, new streets for art and traffic

Still here, still wondering
Still more than a few steps behind what moves me
The push, the pull, looking in the wrong direction
Often gets the ire and the occasional perfect shot
When not obsessing over happiness or self destruction

Still writing about the lights on the hills
And the sound of wind and surf
The lines cross again and again
The words wash up on the sand
Or fall from the sky blessed and undiscussed

The fleeting lesson probably something simple
I yam what I yam and that’s all that I yam
Can I be content with that and sleep
And dream
And dream.

Been procrastinating about writing this post for some reason. Maybe I was waiting for some insight or witty tag line to help me tie it all together. I have been running hard now for a little over 17 months or, if you want to be technical, maybe a while longer than that. My experience this fall working for Metallica was one of the highlights of my career and a great way to wrap up a good year of touring in a bad economic time.

I have spent most of my work life touring, usually taking care of the band or sidemen but very rarely the guy or gal down front. It’s a different kind of pressure. If you screw something up, the show often comes off the rails; no place to run no place to hide. I often catch myself playing “under speed”, a term used by pool players when you don’t play as good as you can to sucker in a mark and build up his confidence. Not wanting to take on the challenge or attention, I guess I have stuck to the shadows.

When I contacted my friend Arthur about working this fall, I wasn’t even sure which position I was looking at. I just wanted to work with my friend again and having learned that it was a temp job filling in for someone who had the job for years, I figured I could pull it off one way or the other.

It turned out to be taking care of guitars for James, the singer. I had inadvertently taken on a pretty good sized challenge. My fear was replaced by a drive to prep as much as possible and find a way to stay relaxed, believing in myself. Thanks to the crew, Chad (the guy I was filling in for) and James, I learned the set up and the songs. I tried to make my mistakes when it didn’t count and just focus on the details I needed to make his show smooth. I think my most valuable asset was that he was very clear in what he needed and what he wanted from me. You would be surprised how much of the difficulty of my job is either a lack of communication from a client or their belief in my ESP abilities. A relationship is a relationship and being clear without punishing the other is a really good way to get what you need.

The Metallica touring machine has a reputation as a steam rolling force of nature with a large show that can move fast, often with multiple systems and across continents. A number of well known production managers have held the job and the team has great pride in their ability to attack tough gigs and get it set up in time, safe and sound. There is always infighting between departments and individuals but it’s been a long time since I’ve been around such a team. Very refreshing.

My part of the tour turned out to be 14 shows, a casual few legs as the band decided to work one week on, one week off as a way to not get separated from their families and their sanity. It is a civilized way to go out and work hard and then recover. The show runs around 2 hours, filled with lasers, fire and riffs of doom. It requires a great deal of focus, especially as the backline guys all do some form of effects switching, actually having to hit the button at just the right time for different sounds as they run across the stage.

I returned from New Orleans for the Thanksgiving break, a little down as I was not going back and still struggling with a lingering cough and cold I had been fighting for weeks. I spent a great deal of the holiday week in bed. Last Sunday around lunchtime I felt like I was having integestion and it came back at breakfast on Monday. Concerned I went to a cardiologist on Tuesday and found that I had arterial blockages bad enough for a double bypass. One was about 70% blocked and the other front side one close to 100%. I was admitted and scheduled for a “Cabbage” (Corinary Artery Bypass Graft) on Thursday.

The procedure went really well and I got out of ICU Saturday morning 6am all tubes and lines pulled by noon Saturday. My progress has been helped by my age and being in relatively good shape. I have been up walking and doing breathing exercises since Friday and after getting cleaned up Saturday night I woke up Sunday morning saying “I feel good this morning” which I probably have not said in 20 years.

I was released Monday afternoon, 3 and a half days after double bypass surgery. It is truly amazing.

A few challenges exist as I try to regain my breathing volume and deal with the coughs that are part of the healing process which clear the cack out of my chest and require me to carry a pillow around to wrap against my chest to protect my cool new scar and keep the pain from knocking me over. In all, my discomfort has been minimal, some antinflammitories and 2 small pain pills a day have been doing the trick. For a roadie to be home for 6-12 weeks and be limited to lifting no more than 10 lbs. is looking like the hard part; patience is a new focus. The rehab of my breastbone and chest muscles as well as the new lifestyle I’ll need to lead will be the new focus.

The love and support of all my friends and family have made it easy so far. I feel blessed and truly lucky to have discovered this problem which in reality is mainly a hereditary one with midnight bus pizza thrown on top…. and a long stint of getting away from exercise. I hope all my friends go see the doctor after hearing my story and go for a walk.

As with most of my days since I’ve been home, I start out filled with energy and promise and then the reality of my situation is I am a bit winded and tired. I’ll keep getting stronger.

I was watching an interview today between Charlie Rose and Michael Arrington from TechCrunch and the topic of the expansion of the mobile web in the United States was discussed. I have linked to many news articles about the ongoing spectrum auction for nearly a year now as it has a direct impact on me at work. How could surfing on the web on your iPhone effect a guy who changes strings for a living? You would be surprised at how the explosion of cell usage and mobile bandwidth can effect my day.

When you see a band onstage you take for granted that you will hear what comes out of their instruments, as long as it’s working properly or they are actually playing it. The band often runs around, from one end of the stage to the other, interacting with the crowd, playing to the left, to the right, to the back. Compared to the early rock days when performers were lashed to their amps and standing still in the front of microphones, the freedom of wireless mics and transmitters gives both the musician and the audience a closer and more animated experience. In the past 15 years as well, the performers have been able to improve their experience by using wireless ear monitors, which usually have custom fitted ear molds that provide them with a mix of what they need to hear in order to play, be in pitch and interact with the others onstage. In my case, I use wireless ear monitors to be able to hear what is going on for my clients as far as function, quality and tuning while being able to continue to work in the shadows to be ready for the next tune.

Tours become more high tech and elaborate every year. We often end up being the R&D department for certain tech as we use it in real time, real world conditions, indoor and out, hot, cold, dry, rainy, 110 volts, 220 volts, 60 cycles, 50 cycles… we pack it, move it, drop it, pick it up and see if it works. As reliability is a must, things that fail have a very short life with the road crew with very few exceptions.

At the start, a lead singer might have had a wireless mic so he or she could croon to the audience. Then the guitar player really wanted to pose out in front of the PA speakers (or not trip over his cable after a few adult beverages). The wireless manufacturers began to use different frequency ranges to improve sound quality and reliability as different parts of the spectrum are regulated for certain use. You might remember the scene from “Spinal Tap” when Nigel’s guitar begins to pick up the control tower when they play at the military base. TV, radio, police communications, taxis, CB’s, walkie talkies, cell phones, wifi, cordless telephones and radio controlled toys all have specific frequencies that they are supposed to operate in, which are regulated by the government. It is different in each country; in the US it is overseen by the Federal Communications Commission.

With the audio wireless equipment that has been available for 10 or 15 years, manufacturers would use a range of about 20 mHz for a series, giving the user a very wide selection of frequencies to choose from, especially as they travelled they could be “frequency agile” and adapt to different wireless traffic in each city. That way Nigel would never pick up the control tower as long as his roadie wasn’t asleep at the wheel. It also allowed sound companies and bands to use more wireless, placing channels in groups so they wouldn’t interfere with each other.

It was not unusual on a large tour to use 50 or 60 channels of wireless onstage for mics, back ups, all manner of instruments, ear monitors for players, dancers (and even management!!!) and the band and sound techs as well. In certain places this required a lot of thought and channel changing when the radio traffic was high. Some tours actually employed a specific person as a “wireless cop” to scan each building, determine clean frequencies, interface with the local government and building people and assign specific channels to make it all work.

With the advent of digital television, the FCC began licencing broadcasters to send TV signals in the UHF range in this new format. Being that the resolution of both the video and audio is much higher, it uses more bandwidth as it is “broadband”. In fact it uses 6 mHz of space, which is over 5 times more than a typical channel. I began to see segments of the musical wireless space become very crowded over 5 years ago, especially in larger markets like Chicago and LA.

OK, plenty of technical stuff here but bare with me.

In 2003, I had a situation where we played multiple shows at Giants Stadium. Between the 3rd and 4th show the channels where I had the bass guitar assigned became unusable. I was put in touch with the person who handles wireless for the stadium and be tried to get to the bottom of the transmission that was interfering with the bass. I found out then the level of traffic was much higher than I ever imagined. Giants Stadium uses nearly 500 different channels of radio during an music or sports event. For security, vendors, maintenance, all levels of their infrastructure had communications. They had assignments for TV, the NFL officials, even the radio stations broadcasting from the tail gate parties in the parking lot were on their list. When they are doing a national TV broadcast for a football game, they don’t want errors. Factoring in our onstage and offstage communications, the total was closer to 560 total channels of wireless.

The stadium rep found out through the FCC that a person had been assigned a temporary license to broadcast digital television in the neighboring town for 30 days in the exact same range, beginning on our day off. What a difference a day makes. The clout of the stadium and of the performer meant nothing to the FCC as the other guy had paid for a broadcast licence. We don’t actually pay for a licence in the US; audio wireless is considered licenced but secondary to DTV.

I had more units on order in a different frequency range that luckily arrived that day and I used them instead. I had ordered them because each city was getting harder and harder to find open airspace. The manufacturers were already building 2 new frequency ranges because they knew the problem was coming and the $30,000 worth of gear we had bought was going to be unusable someday soon.

That day might be this year… anytime between now and 2/19/09.

(If you want to see how the airspace is divvied up currently, look at this chart which is in a previous post with a link to a larger res PDF…)

A majority of the wireless gear we use operates in the 700 mHz frequency range, either totally or partially. We use different ranges from different vendors. As of Feb. 19, 2009, when analog television broadcast stops in the US, all bets are off.

The frequency auction you may or may not have heard about is referred to as “Auction 73″. Part of the spectrum reallocation will go to public safety. The US government is selling the rights to part of this area of the airwaves to the highest bidder and expect to generate 10 billion dollars in license fees. That will cover about 5 weeks of costs in Iraq, by the way. The telecoms and Internet companies want this spectrum to expand the abilities of mobile communication as the need/want for broadband mobile begins to grow.

The audio wireless mic business does not have quite the clout as the telecoms and internet companies but have banded together to try to save a little bit of space for entertainment and other audio uses (conferences, trade shows, churches, sporting events, anywhere you would use a wireless mic) in what the government refers to as the “White Spaces.” Here is a paragraph from the Shure page I have linked about the government’s intent:

…the FCC is also studying the possibility of allowing unlicensed devices to use future “unoccupied” TV channels, which policymakers now refer to as the “white spaces“. These unlicensed devices fall into two categories – fixed and portable – and include such items as wireless broadband services, wireless multimedia systems, PDAs, and cordless telephones. Currently, these products operate in other radio frequency bands, such as 2.4 GHz. The FCC’s proposed date for allowing unlicensed devices to operate in the new core TV band is February 17, 2009, in conjunction with completion of the DTV transition.

Here is a brief summary of how the FCC plans to implement Digital Television service:

The FCC has established a “transition period” which will last through February 19, 2009. During this time, existing TV stations will be assigned a second TV channel on which they will begin broadcasting in the new digital format. This means that some television channels that are now vacant may be filled. Wireless microphones operating on these TV channels may or may not encounter interference from the DTV station’s signal.

During the transition period, public safety agencies will begin to use TV channels 63 – 64 (764 – 776 MHz) and 68 – 69 (794 – 806 MHz) for two-way radio communications. As these frequencies gradually become busier, wireless microphones operating on these TV channels may encounter occasional interference.

After February 19, 2009, TV channels 60 – 62 (746 – 764 MHz) and 65 – 67 (776 – 794 MHz) will be opened up for use by new commercial wireless services. Licenses for these new services will be awarded by competitive bidding. Some of these auctions have already occurred, but the winners will not be able to use this spectrum until it has been vacated by the television broadcasts.

So our gear has a lifespan due to commerce and government regulation… not very rock and roll.
We already have seen how things not in the frequency range effect us, either through harmonic or sheer numbers of transmitters. Ask around the music communities and see if you don’t hear the stories of how 55,000 raise their cellphones at once to let everyone at home hear the start of the show and the wireless mics take a “drop” or a “hit”. GSM phones and the ever-checking-the-cloud Blackberry sound great when musicians leave them in their pockets and come through a guitar amp on 11. Recently I’ve been hearing that the iPhone will cause total “drops” on wireless and some tours won’t let them be turned on around the stage during the show. There are so many wifi repeaters, cell phones, PDA’s and smartphones, EVDO cards that when something happens we don’t have a clear answer as to what caused the problem. In speaking to some of the most experienced people in the field, they don’t always have an answer to the whys… “it’s all voodoo,” one said. The companies have stopped supporting the older, soon to be obsolete audio wireless gear not only to get us to buy the new stuff but so that they are not spending resources on anything that will be worthless or problematic soon.

Hey, we’ll always find a workaround for those who need to “be free”. Audiophiles have found their way back to guitar cords and though the idea of bluetooth guitar wireless is something that just gives me the night sweats, some guy is pondering how to solve the problem. As someone who is connected to my Blackberry all the time and wishing that the browsing speeds were better, I’m not totally against them getting the space to use. I just hope they keep a little area for us to keep on rockin’ in.

Today was a fun example of being on the road and getting to see things you never thought you’d get to see. MK has a friend in Stockholm, Sweden named Sven Hellsten who runs Hellstone Music, a Fibber McGee-style music store that is part museum, part music store and part inside joke. As it was Sunday they are not usually open, we (Michael, Kevin, Harry and I) were granted passage into this mind blowing collection of vintage drums, Beatles memorabilia, Hagstrom, Goya and Eko guitars…as well as other more typical (and less typical) gear.

As you can see in the above photo, he has decorated the ceiling with old Hagstroms, much prettier to look at that to play.

The drum department was just as overwhelming on the first floor…

I saw finishes and fades of finishes I have never seen before. I am not a collector, but I’m completely clueless when it comes to some of this stuff. Vintage Rogers,Leedy, Ludwig (wood, metal and Vistalites!) and plenty of stuff unique to Europe.

then there was the basement…

Here’s Harry in the middle of a huge pile of drums that took up almost the entire basement from floor to ceiling. And, we didn’t see it all…

So, if you’re a gearhead and have a day off in Stockholm, be sure to visit Hellstone Music. Sven doesn’t have a website but here’s a link to the shop’s location in Google Maps with the address and phone number…

Today finds us in Copenhagen, Denmark where is no chance of mistaking it for Texas… or Akron. I have been coming here since the mid-80’s and feel a connection to it as it was a place where the jazz band I worked for would do a run at a club for a few days. Most of my touring in those days was really hit and run, so getting to hang out somewhere was rare and a chance to get a better vibe for a place. The old part of the city, the canals, Tivoli, the retro bicycles and steady traffic and lanes (apparently no one ever told the girls of the city that riding a bike with a cello strapped to your back is difficult)…

Well, it’s been over a month since the last Bitterman update. Is this a worthless cul-de-sac, a location that housed my fad for a while? I sure hope not. It’s not that my identity is tied to this website, but it’s a place for people to catch up with me when they can and, apparently, when I can. Despite the lack of traffic on my end, I have been productive in work and with some photography. I don’t rule out a podcast again, it’s just hard to start the conversation after such a long break.

So we’ve been over here in Europe for a while now, having left shortly after Thanksgiving. We started in Spain where a pretty nasty bit of intestinal distress began its attack of the crew. It eventually crossed over the line into the band which lead to a postponement in the Netherlands.

I feel in some way the crew has finally hit it’s stride over here despite the challenging work conditions and health issues. I am really fortunate to have KB and MK by my side as their experience certainly helps me when I’m looking too closely at a problem. The oddest issue is the fact that you have a technical problem and you have someone else (the player) analyzing the results who may or may not experience the changes in the same way you do. Sometimes a mathematical solution to an organic problem won’t work. Vague enough?

As we see the last 5 or 6 shows of the year coming our way, we also have started to see how our 2008 is shaping up. If we live through this, we get to do it again, bigger and longer. The sales of the summer open air tickets have been fast and furious. We’ll be seeing a lot of the same places we saw in 2003 and a bunch of new ones.

I guess it’s time to start looking around for Christmas presents today… more will be revealed…